Kenenisa Bekele

Heir to the Throne

A young man sits in the departure lounge of Seville airport. As he waits for the flight to Addis Ababa he is quiet and motionless, giving the impression that he is asleep with his eyes open. A pair of headphones belie, however, that he is totally engrossed in traditional Ethiopian music, a favorite pastime when he is not bashing out miles.

Fresh off yet another European cross country win—he was undefeated against the world’s best on the first leg of his 2003 season—20-year-old Kenenisa Bekele contemplates a future that few can imagine but which many of his peers envy. Even Haile Gebrselassie, "The Emperor," with whom he trains a couple of times a week, has predicted that the young man can beat his 5,000m and 10,000m world records.

On Top of the World

Although he won the 2001 World Junior Cross Country Championships, Bekele truly came of age in Dublin last year. Many junior champions fade into obscurity or, at best, struggle to make their national teams once they enter adulthood. Bekele, just 19 when he lined up against the greatest runners in the world in the 4K senior race, stunned them all with a convincing victory over a muddy course.

Despite nursing an achilles tendon strain—which he declined to tell anybody about—Bekele returned to the race course the next day to help the Ethiopian team. The result was the same. He completely destroyed the 12K senior men’s field, becoming the only man to ever win both events at the World Cross Country Championships, and the only man to ever win the World Junior Cross Country race and then go on to win a senior title. That he repeated the double in Lausanne last March is further testament to his unique talent.

"So far I am happy with my progress," he allows. "I am trying to do more, especially on the track, so I am not yet completely satisfied. I was expecting more competition in Dublin. I thought the races would be a lot tougher so I was very surprised that I won so easily."

With the prize money from his World Cross victories Bekele immediately bought himself a house in Addis and then invited one of his four brothers and a sister to live with him so they could attend college in the capital. Now the primary breadwinner in his family, Bekele also pays their tuition. Having his siblings near is important to him.

"My family is in [the province of] Arsi but the roads to Arsi are not that good. The last time I was home was just after the World Cross Country Championships last year," he laments. "My mother and father have never seen me race. My brother and sister saw me race a cross country race and a track race in Addis. And I brought back tapes from my races in Europe that we have watched together."

Haile’s Shadow

Comparisons with Gebrselassie are inevitable. "I don’t mind the comparisons with Haile," he says. "Haile did a lot of things while I was a junior and when I started running seriously I noticed this."

But Bekele is also protective of his own identity. At every opportunity he has declared that he is not Haile and there are signs he has grown tired of the subject. In any case, his stunning victory over Gebrselassie in the 10,000m at the Hengelo Grand Prix meet in June has since answered the question of whether he is capable of following in the footsteps of the man widely considered to be the greatest distance runner of all time.

For the record: both were born in the same region of Arsi province—Gebrselassie from Assela, Bekele from Oromo—where their families toil as farmers. Both launched their careers as world class junior athletes. But there the similarities end.

Gebrselassie is friendly, outgoing and warm to others, while Bekele is far more reserved. Gebrselassie is comfortable speaking English, having studied it for several years. Bekele greets a journalist in English, but quickly steps back to allow an interpreter to handle the questions.

Tactically Bekele is far less predictable than Gebrselassie, who relies heavily upon an unequalled sprint attack over the last 400 meters. Bekele often takes charge of a race early on, but his victory over Gebrselassie was achieved with a furious sprint over the last 300 meters.

"He is very different from the other Ethiopian runners," says Michel Van Sluis, an employee of Jos Hermens’s Global Sports Communications, who handles the Ethiopian athletes’ day-to-day affairs. "For instance he prefers to train alone 80 to 90% of the time because he doesn’t like the training the federation gives him. He is a bit of a loner. You will see him with the others at meets but always to the side. They respect him but he is quiet and different and that is his strength."

Bekele does enjoy playing pool and watching English language talk shows when he stays at Global’s headquarters in Nijmegen, Holland. Is he a good pool player? "The Kenyans are better," says Van Sluis, laughing.

A Wealth of Heroes

To understand the rise of this young man it is necessary to appreciate the grand sense of tradition that empowers young Ethiopian runners. Just as Miruts Yifter’s victories at the 1980 Moscow Olympics inspired a young Haile Gebrselassie, the success of present day Olympians stoked Bekele’ s enthusiasm.

"Derartu Tulu is my hero," Bekele reveals. "She was the first Ethiopian woman to win an Olympic gold medal for Africa and for Ethiopia. I heard all about her when I was starting out and she is someone I thought a lot about."

A school teacher first noticed young Bekele’s talent and encouraged him to train. Then, after he appeared in some local races, Hermens spotted him and took note.

"We saw Kenenisa in provincial cross country races in Ethiopia and we could see he was very, very good," Hermens remembers, "But you never know how good."

Bekele’s best track performances came during the 2001 season when he ran 7:30.67 for 3,000m in the Ivo Van Damme meeting in Brussels, followed by a 5,000m best of 13:13.33 in Seville. Illness robbed him of the chance to represent Ethiopia at the World Track and Field Championships in Edmonton when he could only manage a 13:15 in Rome’s Golden League meet, which the Ethiopian selectors used as their trials. But his debut 10,000m of 26:53.70 indicates he will set the track alight this year, and should the Ethiopian selectors give the 10,000m places to he and Gebrselassie, track fans are in for a treat at the World Championships.

"It is difficult to say whether he can do what Haile has done," says Hermens. "I mean, Haile has 15 world records indoors and outdoors. Bekele has won the World Cross Country Championships. Maybe he can break the world 5,000m and 10,000m records one day. Also I think he can be an exceptional marathon runner."

In Ethiopia the marathon is the true measure of an athlete. Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde are lauded as national heroes for their Olympic marathon gold medals. Even Gebrselassie has joked that his accomplishments are dwarfed by those two Olympic marathon victories. The prospect of Bekele accepting the marathon challenge is delightful, but there are many races to go before he realizes this goal.

For the moment, this 20-year-old is happy. "Life has changed for me. More people recognize me when I am walking down the street in Addis," says Bekele proudly. "They want to shake my hand or they want to say hello. Life is getting better too, I have my own house and I am helping my brother and sister go to school. I go to school myself to improve my English. I am planning to learn how to use a computer and I have one now at my house."

As to the future? "I think if I work very hard in the next few years like Haile did I may be able to do the same as him. I don’t know." We’ll look forward to finding out.